Featuring City Fertility Sydney CBD fertility specialist Professor Bill Ledger.
The right time to have children is a discussion that often polarises opinion, but for the men and women over 35 with family on their mind, it’s time for a wellbeing check, according to one of Australia’s top fertility experts.
City Fertility Sydney CBD specialist, Professor Bill Ledger, stresses that as much as the development of science and technology has gone a long way to aiding conception over the years, age remains a roadblock for many.
“We need to educate men that women don’t often stay fertile much beyond their early 40s,” Prof Ledger told news.com.au recently.
“You can’t be in a relationship with someone until she’s 45 and then expect that it will be easy to have a baby. I see these people every single week and it’s heartbreaking to see them miss out on such a life enhancing achievement.”
For people aged 35 and over, who want the option of having children Prof Ledger recommends men to get a sperm check, and for women to consider an Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) blood test.
The ‘revolutionary’ test allows a woman to check her egg reserves, which can indicate how much time a woman has before she enters menopause.
He calls it a ‘reality health check’ but for your fertility.
“It’s just a sense of looking after your own biology and not relying on nature.”
The latest statistics released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in October revealed that 60 per cent of births were to mothers between the ages of 30 and 39 years of age, with 22.1 per cent born to mums between 35 to 39.
Prof Ledger impresses upon couples that fertility advice shouldn’t be directed at just the female cohort, acknowledging that male fertility also declines with age.
This generally happens after the age of 45 when the rate of miscarriage and chromosome problems in babies increases due to the lowered sperm quality.
As a general rule, Prof Ledger says people should aim to have had their babies by the time a woman is in her early 40s.
